On December 27, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 2-0 to issue a proposed rule on upholstered furniture flammability.

The vote supported a staff proposal which, for the first time in the 14-year regulatory process, focused only on ignition of furniture by dropped cigarettes – which account for over 90 percent of furniture fires. Previous staff proposals would have also required furniture to resist small open flame sources such as lighters, matches and candles, which would entail considerably greater expense, chemical treatment and loss of aesthetics.

In a written statement, Commissioner Thomas Moore (D) said he regretted that the agency could not also address open flame fires at this time, noting growing evidence that flame retardant (FR) chemicals used to achieve such performance are accumulating in human bodies and adversely affecting the hormonal and neurological development of children.

Moore did urge agency staff to conduct further research to identify safer FR compounds that would allow open flame requirements to be added back into the pending regulation. Such research would presumably occur during the 120-day public comment period, as well as over the several months it will take commission staff to evaluate and respond to those comments.

The cigarette resistance test endorsed by the Commission is more stringent than the voluntary UFAC standard and is expected to fail about 15 percent of upholstery fabrics. Failing fabrics would have to be reengineered, or constructed atop a barrier layer that would prevent the spread of fire into underlying cushioning materials.

CPSC staff has identified several "barrier" products that could meet this application, including some developed in response to the mattress flammability regulation. AHFA and UFAC have already begun evaluating barrier materials for functionality and economics. Of particular importance are high-loft products that can serve as drop-in replacements for existing cotton and polyester batting, thereby limiting the need for additional cutting and sewing.